Tony Blair expected in Cairo SundayThe source said that Cairo Airport officials had received a notice that Mr. Blair would arrive on board a private jet on Sunday

Tony Blair – The Quartet Envoy

CAIRO (AA) – Former British prime minister and the envoy of the Middle East Quartet Tony Blair is due to arrive in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Sunday to participate in talks aiming at bringing about a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a security source at Cairo Airport said late on Saturday.

The source, who asked not to be named, added that Cairo Airport officials had already received a notice that Mr. Blair would arrive on board of a private jet in the company of some officials on Sunday to discuss developments in Gaza.

Blair’s participation in the Gaza talks was not officially confirmed. Anadolu Agency could not obtain comments from the Egyptian government in this regard yet.

A Palestinian delegation had arrived to the Egyptian capital Cairo on Saturday to start indirect Gaza ceasefire talks with the Israeli government, a Cairo Airport official said.

The Palestinian delegation had arrived from the Jordanian capital Amman and it is made of five people, the official added.

He added that representatives of the Gaza-based Palestinian resistance movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad would arrive in Cairo by land.

An airport source said earlier in the day that Cairo Airport had already received a notice about the arrival of United States Deputy Secretary of State William Burns on Sunday to participate in the Gaza ceasefire talks.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Amira Oron told Anadolu Agency on the phone that Israel had not decided to send a delegation to the talks in Cairo.

She said, however, that a change may happen within the next one or two hours.

Gaza has been ravaged by Israel’s military machine for almost a month now, losing at least 1708 of its residents to Israeli aerial, naval and ground bombardments.

Gaza-based resistance movements have, meanwhile, continued to fire rockets into Israel, causing fear to hundreds of thousands of people who seek safety in underground shelters every now and then.